Exploring Coffee 2016 - West Michigan and Beyond...

Galeras coffee from Colombia and Yukro from Ethiopia

My Year of Coffee?

I have been thinking for awhile now that a good project for 2016 (and less calorie-laden than my craft beer adventure of last year) would be to explore coffee--not craft coffee, but coffee-carafe-ing!

As I have mentioned before, caffeine is my last safe drug ... and modest coffee drinking is thought to be good for the brain (prevention of strokes and Alzheimer's); coffee is loaded with unique antioxidants, and has been touted to have many other benefits, including that needed wake-up in the morning that gets the heart beating. I'll bet many health scientists are addicted to coffee and that's why we hear good things about coffee consumption all the time.

I obviously cannot sample local craft coffee beans. We do not have what it takes to grow coffee in Michigan. But there are coffee roasters in town and different methods of brewing and preparing coffee. And coffee is being crafted and bottled and infused and even put on tap, as I have mentioned before.

I have also said before that a dedicated locavore cannot drink coffee or use salt. Those things cannot be harvested locally!

I just recalled that Grandpa VR used to add salt to the grounds when he brewed coffee. What was that for, I wonder?

Anyway, today I am announcing the start of a sub-blog of coffee!

(And I am back to exclamation points--with no apology--because it is very warm this week and it is almost Spring! And coffee makes me very excitable!!)

My blood pressure has been rising...

It was borderline high (pre-hypertensive last summer) and now recently was tested to be in an unsafe range.

Caffeine exacerbates high blood pressure!! (So does SALT!)

I am now, for the first time in my life (I actually went to the doctor!), on a prescribed drug. I took statins briefly and may end up on a statin again if I don't lose 50 lbs. soon. But I am now on a drug for hypertension. (I still take aspirin every day--I think since I was 50).

Anyway, now that my blood pressure is under control, I can plunge head first into My Year of Coffee without guilt!

(I may also have to take a drug for GERD if my stomach starts protesting the acid or lack there of.)

(I also realize that I have started every sentence with I. (May I remind you that this blog is about me?) And I don't know just yet if any friends will join me in the coffee thing. Maybe if I agree to pay!

I tried an espresso at a European/Bosnian Cafe recently and it was good, but I don't have any information about what beans they used. I do hope to scout out what unusual coffee is available in town and beyond, whenever I travel, and especially in New York City!

We had a little snack at the European Cafe, too. A little pearl barley (tomato-based) soup that is very traditional Bosnian fare (okay, but not for me), and some Burek stuffed with meat, that had a nice flaky pastry crust.  I took a mediocre photo--bread is not that photogenic:

Burek

Sunday I tried out a new coffee shop in town that uses Madcap coffee beans and employs a similar technique--no timers involved, just two big pours, after an initial pour to remove the paper taste from the filter and warm the carafe--I presume. I had the Colombian GALERAS, grown on the volcanic slopes of my favorite coffee country. It was a pricey, pour-over style which was then transferred into a to-go cup. I drank it black and thought it was a really great cup of coffee--strong enough to get me through the Home and Garden Show on a sleepy Sunday afternoon. With the coffee I indulged in a tiny sugary Irish creme macaron, baked by Nantucket Bakery next door. J. had the Yukro, with cream.

I also recently purchased a bag of beans from Starbucks--a blonde roast VERANDA blend, advertised to be mellow and soft. It was good, but was not noticeably superior to my usual Colombian Peaks coffee.

And that's about it for now on new coffee news.

 I recall that last year I tried a craft beer that used a few pooped-out South American coffee beans in the brew, at Perrins Brewery. The stout beers that I like often contain coffee beans in the brew, but they are ruined for me when the coffee beans are too heavily roasted or give the beer a burned or smoked taste, just as I do not like the dark roast beans that I have associated with Starbucks. But coffee exploration may have an element of overlap with the beer exploration that I did last year! They exhibit some of the same flavor profiles, such as roastiness and bitterness. And as the hops naturally can make a beer, say, grapefruity, the beans can reflect subtle flavors from the soil in which the coffee plants are grown.

As St. Patrick's Day approaches I also think of the whisky/coffee/cream pairings. I have had a beer bloody Mary, and beer brewed with coffee beans, but I have not yet mixed beer into my coffee! I think we added tiramisu gelato to the Tiramisu stout, bottled and brewed by Hideout Brewery, but that is about as creative as I have been with beer and coffee so far.

I will record my coffee photos and notes with a brief check-in--something like Untappd for beer. It is unlikely that I will switch to an entirely new coffee by year's end, and I might not have the budget to drink any high-end stuff regularly, but if my knowledge and tastes change as much as they did last year in My Year of Beer, who knows? I no longer drink Miller Lite!

More caffeinated excitement coming...